In front of 2,700 spectators the Danish visitors won the first leg on Saturday 32:29, followed by a 32:30 win on Sunday.

"We had never won in Lada before despite having been here three times, so the fact that we won twice this weekend was simply gigantic, historical," said Peter Krautmeyer – the assistant coach was in charge of the team for the double-header.

The Scandinavian derby between H 65 Höörs Handbollsklubb from Sweden and Team Esbjerg from Denmark did not find its decision this weekend, but still the matter is close to being done and dusted, after Esbjerg won the first leg at Höör 33:25.

"Esbjerg were good on counter attacks and fast breaks and punished our technical mistakes. At the same time, we did not benefit from neither our attacking play nor from our goalkeepers’ saves," Höör coach Niklas Harris said.

"We played high speed all the way, and that gave us a good win which was really nice," Esbjerg’s Dutch right back Laura van der Heijden said.

Things were different when it came to the German derby in the tournament.

The first leg of the tie between TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen-Werkselfen and Buxtehuder SV ended with a narrow 31:29 home win for Leverkusen which means that everything is open ahead of the return match in Buxtehude next Saturday.

With no less than 11 goals Buxtehude’s 23-year-old left back Jessica Oldenburg arguably played a huge role in keeping her team in the race for the quarter-finals.